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The Tragedy Of The American Farmer, Revealed In A Craiglist "For Sale" Post
Not so long ago, US farmland - whose prices were until recently rising exponentially - was considered by many to be the next asset bubble. Then, almost overnight, the fairytale ended, and as reported in February, US farmland saw its first price drop since 1986.
But nobody has had it as bad as the US farmer, whose visions of fame and fortune have sadly gone up in a cloud of methanol smoke. Perhaps nothing captures the lives of quiet modern gothic desperation led by America's farmer than the following Craigslist posting about a Disk Ripper for sale.
* * *
Back when corn was trading at $6, I thought it'd be a good idea to buy an overpriced used disk ripper at retail dealership prices. Continuous corn was going to make everyone rich anyway, and I needed something to deal with the thick stover and stalk residue. Besides that, the neighbors had just bought a new one, and I figured I needed to get one too. With $350 DDGs, $450 soybean meal, $18 beans and $7 corn in 2012, it was looking like I had made a good decision. So I tore up the pastures, ripped out the fencelines, and almost convinced my wife to plant corn in our front yard.
But on the pedagogic scale of great ideas that just didn't seem to work out, this idea will probably end up ranking somewhere between "urinating directly onto an electric fence" and "sticking my hand into the baler to clear out the jam"......... I don't mean to suggest that it was a total failure, however, because the character building lessons of defeat have proven inordinately profitable over the years. And this one certainly had its share of lessons - financial and otherwise.
Anyway, as the alcohol-induced corn boom (ethanol) violently turned to bust, un-pleasant realities of that mystical numberland called "Finance" started to appear. Turns out that the banker actually wants his money back WITH interest! I couldn't believe it.......... I had gotten so used to the government's farm welfare programs when corn was $2 that I almost forgot how markets and financing was supposed to work! Direct payments would just magically appear in my checking account, and I was one of the best at playing the LDP game. And then when corn was $6-7, it didn't matter what the banker said, because I couldn't wake up without money falling into my hands from the corn gods in Chicago!
But now, with negative margins and stubbornly expensive inputs, I need to sell this piece of equipment. It is a used 7 shank M&W 1875 disk ripper. It has the auto-resets, which is nice. As you can see in the pics, there is no harrow on the back to level out the ridges. You might think that's a bad thing, but I've found that a particularly rough field keeps the trespassers, hunters, poachers, snowmobilers, and meth lab junkies out of the field during the winter. It is in good working condition. The paint is faded which is also a good thing, because then the neighbors won't get too jealous when you go by their new shop. It's been kept outside for as long as I've owned it because only the really expensive toys get put inside. If you drive by Vetter or Van Wall, you'll notice that pretty much all of their inventory is kept outside too, so I don't feel bad about it.
I think $8,900 is a fair price. But if you want to pay more, then that's fine too......... My goodness! Dec corn got slaughtered yesterday...... down another 20 cents after the Planting Intentions report....... Let's make it $8,500 and everyone goes home a winner!
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really is sad.. feel for the guy.... ... meanwhile VC and PE peeps rich as Phuck. Cruz raised 5million$ in a week .. farmers broke..
Yeah, it's a real shame. Price of hog is crap and price of beef is in the stratosphere. But there's no water in CA to make hay literally.
In France the farmers take their protests to the streets and tractors blocking major arteries or even going for the capital. Imagine tractors on Wall Street and that disc could be useful ploughing up the roads to allow the pigs to roam again. It was always a pig's home.
savory, judy, salatin...these guys know how to farm
Where's Jim Rogers and his "farmers driving Maseratis" bullshit?
T BOONE PICKENS!
PAGING T BOONE PICKENS!
They're putting the cash into massive new barns in my neck of the woods. I live in Steuben County, NY and drive I-390 or 15A to work and there are barns being torn down with new MASSIVE replacements going up left & right. There's one right along 390 just north of Avon that looks like they're just about finishing up.
My cousin lives in central texas says raw land has dropped 50% in the last two years but still is about 200% too overpriced. Land that was $1k an acre back in 2002 shot up to $10k or more and much is now below $6k. He expects more correction as the "rekovery" gets more robust.
He indicated the wealth people moving to Texas want ot be in the action in Austin or Houston, not on raw land out in the boonies.
Everyone gets corn-holed in N.E. Illinois.
Even with $50 oil, “summer corn blend” and taxes have gas up around $3.75.
Used to be farmers grew food.
Flatlanders.......
Chrome it, put a gold propeller on it, stand it on end and sell it to the Des Moines city council for $450,000 so they have something to remember what was and left.
I been out there on ground level in rural Colorado/Utah and I am very sad for those farmers.
They say "the good old times" and that's an understatement. Everything is in ruins. Back in 2011 one farmer who had acres of "abandoned" equipment told that the gov't even pays him not to grow/farm. Not sure which banker's idea it was to persuade the gov't to pay farmers to stop farming (and drive up prices), but he showed me the math and this once wealthy miner/farmer who had more than a million dollars of equipment in scrapmetal alone, rusting away, will die poor, while selling his equipment at scrap prices to keep the next day going.
"Where's Jim Rogers and his "farmers driving Maseratis" bullshit?"
Take another look at the chart. He was right for 27 years in a row, wrong for one year. That is why he lives in a penthouse in Singapore and you don't.
Ha! Ha! Good one!
Nice one AA!
Let me tell all the uninformed armchair investment pros here just what farmland is... It is a real asset that cash flows. It's real estate that hardley ever has any vacancy and is never obsolete unlike commercial real estate. It is in diminishing supply. It is critical to the stability of a nation. If it is over-leveraged, it can bite you in the ass. It is not some fucking paper derivative and it will never go to zero like Lehman Bros stock. It is not portable like gold - but gold can be taxed at 50% and get screwed overnight. It is also pretty low odds that the govt will overly fuck it up to the point of jeopardizing the nation's food supply. No asset class is perfect, but farmland checks off on a helluva lot more boxes than paper or other assets. Just sayin...
I upvoted you, but I gotta say that gov.t will declare your property theirs when push comes to shove.
Without going into further detail, I will just say that the only things you actually own are between your ears.
Same as it ever was.
Try not paying taxes, and see how much you actually own.
Sure, you can work the land, but when things get bad, all you'll have is a bunch of sweat-rings and .gov trucks hauling off your harvest.
True. So next year nobody plants anything. Then who loses?
What is this, extortion? You fkn dumbass. You think you can intimidate. Fuck you and everyone who looks like you!
Take your dried out Calfornia farm and shove it up your ass.
beaker, ever heard of a Kulak? That is what happens the second year and the third.. Get ready beaker..
Not many today know what sweat rings or granny beads are. I have never known of a harvest time quite as brutal as this one.
Neither have the harvested. The vast majority haven't the faintest clue.
This may just be the final harvest.
Then again, the harvesters may move to China, or Russia, where they will be treated like the dogs they are !
Any of you familiar with JoAnne Collins? She has foretold your future.
Live it. Edit: Suzanne, not Joanne.
You will be the USSA's verzion of the Kulak.
The only reason this farmer has a problem is that he started with the corn about 10 years too late. Farmers running 1,000 or more acres have made a whole lot of money during that time. this guy is not going to earn anything if he now tries to turn it back to pasture. If he knew how to farm in the first place he would still be able to make a reasonable profit from the corn and beans.
Sure the land prices are going to come down. When the farmers were rolling in the cash they bid it up and then just paid cash for the farm exxpansion. Those times are in the past, particularly when the high USD is killing their export markets.
I don't think anyone is gong to make much from leasing out their farmland. Land that is selling for maybe $5,000 an acre leases for about $200 a year. Then pay property taxes and fencing. Not much cash left as ROI.
He should grow basketball players for the first year then football and baseball players for two years then go back to eatin corn. The field should be monsato free by then. If not grow five years of spec op killers to make a run down to 800 North Lindbergh Blvd. St. Louis, Missouri and grow some blood boring holes.
Exactly correct.
After increasing in value by 3000% or so, a 3% decline in a year is a ZH disaster?
Click bait bullshit.
Explain the juxtaposition to those farmers who can spend 100's of thousands on competitive pulling tractors. Purely entertainment machines.
"need to sell this piece of equipment."
Raise your hand if you also thought of president Obongo.
They would be shot as terrorists and the MSM would blame it on the Republicans.
Well there aint really much of anyone else, I mean unless you think Hillary had some plan that did not work out.
Price of hog is crap and price of bacon is at an all-time high, something's missing here...
Jewel had a one day sale on bacon for $1.98/lb. I usually get a couple of lbs when it is $2.99/lb, which seems to be every week these days at one store or another.
Bacon itself is crap now too.
Started buying it again after several years. Tried 4 different brands. I like my bacon crispy, which means there has to be a fair amount of meat on it. They were all 75-80% FAT. Totally disappointed.
A friend suggested precooked bacon. Wasn't awful, just wasn't quite the same and you sure don't get much in a box.
Bacon is crap, now, then, and will be tomorrow too.
I haven't eaten that shit in 20 years. No wonder the average ZH poster is 250 going on 300, but hey, you're all ready to take on our oppressive government right?
Doesn't eat bacon = fag.
Well its a possibility hes a fag....or Joo...or Muslim...but that doesnt make up for the attack on bacon and zero.
His IQ is 37....he told us all. So I know that for a fact.
He is from now on 37!!!
RIPS
My friend from Scotland was lamenting all of the fat in American bacon. He says it's not like that across the pond. He's going to get a loin and slice and cure it himself.
Tell him to go to a local butcher shop to buy bacon. Problem solved.
Unless he enjoys curing it himself, that is.
American bacon isn't from the loin--that would be Canadian bacon.
American bacon is from the belly--pork bellies.
There is a lot of nasty pork at the stores these days. If you feed a pig too much and don't keep their environment clean, the meat is too fatty and inedible imo.
I avoid red meat and pork. I do not have high blood pressure either.
I try to avoid eating other mammals but Amerika is filled with homo-cidal maniacs especially in govt and dual shitizen Jonathan Pollard types in the State Dept, Intel and MIC.
FFS! Give me about a pound of bacon, a half a dozen over-easy, buttered toast, a couple sausage gravey & biscuits and a tall glass of 1/2 & 1/2.
I don't have high blood pressure or high cholesterol either.
Thats OK.
I'm eating yours and mine.
Thanks.
Actually bacon and eggs are pretty healthy. Just leave off the pancakes and syrup or biscuits and gravy.
Also, too much water and "flavor enhancing solution" added. All that Oscar Meyer and national brand bacon is shit; comes out of the package as slimey as shit. Real bacon isn't slippery. Go to a butcher and get plain old, cured, slab bacon. Put on foil lined baking sheet, oven to 400 and let it go to desired crispness (15-20 mins).
I saw some pork with 8% "enhancing solution" before; they do the same with chicken too. Find a good butcher.
Don't use foil. Use parchment paper. Save the grease for frying eggs.
How bacon should be done.
Z
Whose mom or grandma kept a jar of bacon grease? My mom did.
Excellent green bean flavoring!
Beef is so high here in the upper Midwest that you need to see a loan officer before you bring home a Beef Roast to the family for Sunday Dinner!
My grocery keeps the beef in a special viewing room. Charge admission to just look at the stuff.
Bacon is now a cult thing I agree just bought a pork loin high quality meat on sale for $1.77/lb. Pretty much top quality boneless chops and you decide how thick to cut them, for the grill, the oven, for soups, stews, stir fry, smoking options. Bacon gets it on with everything, when the fast food chains started putting it on everything price went crazy. Went to a high end wedding a couple months back and they had bacon in 1/2 the desserts, Pecan Pie with.....bacon, several options chocolate pecan wiith bacon. Cupcakes....with bacon. Seriously it was ok but IMO not a marriage made in heaven. Bacon Fest running around the country 4-5K up to 10K folks showing up cause they love....bacon. Bottom line the good stuff unless you want to pay big bucks is getting sucked up by the foodies. Means you are paying up for bacon and bacon carries a surcharge compared to the CUT OUT value of the pork carcuss so enjoy the cheaper chops etc. So really supply demand is working here. Still some deals out there but I don't see much under $3.50 LB. sale price of quality. Yep pork prices are under valued market taking all that cheap grain and not allowing the farmer to plus value monetize it thru pork production. Not fair but thats the way it is now....sucks
Bacon has an overpowering taste, that's why the restaurants put it on everything so that the powerful taste will disguise their poor fare as bacon is relatively cheap.
I love bacon with eggs, but not with anything else; if one has a indiscriminate palate I guess its alright on all foods but doesn't make much sense.
You can thank the ecoterrorists for the water shortage in CA.
http://www.city-journal.org/2015/25_1_california-drought.html
Thank you ecoterrorists! California was a rolling disaster anyway. Maybe La Raza will change their minds about it now.
Don't buy new farm equipment with borrowed money. Note to future farmers- take the high-school welding class seriously. I have made more money from learning to weld in high school than anything I could have ever learned in college.
I would rank autoshop up there with welding class, maybe even more so. You dont have to be a pretty welder for the farm.
Hay and beef over here... the spring calf's are doing good, the only corn I plant is in the garden for human consumption and it's not that GMO garbage.
..... no worries, the lying fudgepacker says the economy is great..... yea, right, great for the 0.1%, the wall street crooks, theiving investment bankers, elected ruling political elite turds and the non tax paying free loaders - both citizen and noncitizen freeloaders.... for hard working tax paying US citizens in the middle class, such as it is, not so much....
"Government isn't the solution to our problem. Government is the problem." R.Reagan, US President who cleaned up the mess after the second worst president in history....
"for hard working tax paying US citizens in the middle class, such as it is, not so much...."
You know you are a slave right? :(
I agree to a certain extent hedge, but it's no different than any other ordinary J6P making a silly decision. I farm on the side for a operator that farms 13 thousand acres. We all get our own book of field maps, and let me tell you it's like reading an atlas. He is a very good operator who does not make rash choices. This doesn't mean he makes a lot of money every year but he always makes money. It is the small guys tho that are getting squeezed out, that is pretty true. When equipment gets old they either have to stick a bunch of money into parts and upkeep(if parts are still curent) or trade up to something larger than what they need. Gone, for the most part, are the days when John Deere or Massey Ferguson had four different models of combine, for the size of your operation. Now, to a certain extent, it's all or nothing for those that farm under 1000 acres.
Anymore, farmers that farm under 1000 acres have a part time, or often full time job in town just to get on an employers insurance plan, and farm after work. I have the luxury of clocking out and heading out to the field to hop in 400 g's worth of GPS auto steer equiped tractors pulling a 40' disc finisher. Those guys that bust thier asses at a mfg job to go home and drive 30 plus year old stuff around get my respect all day long. They are in it because thier hearts are in it.
I admire anyone who has there heart in anything I never found mine. Paid or not.
Im with you crud. Never found anything that could keep my interest long enough.
My dad still runs 200 head on about 250 acres. 1973 Ford 5000 still works every day but you gotta do maintenance yourself, few still know how and would want to. BTW, that tractor books for the same it cost new, something must have changed in dollars since then or something. He's always worked, now retired and farms full time. Had a big offer to buy his farm (guy whos parents my dad bought it from made it rich). Dad loves that place and built it up from a crop farm. Asked him what he'd do if he did sell it and he said "go somewhere else and farm" so, yeah, his heart's in it. You have to have some other source of money to be a small farmer. Myself, I intend to work it after I retire. Keep costs down, stay small and take on no debt.
We do vegetables in the Midwest, small scale. I have housing for "interns" who work the season with free rent and learn about growing. The time always comes when I get to know one of them well enough to be brutally honest with them (these are mid 20's age kids)... Anyway.. The time comes when I tell them there is no way they can do what we are doing. The input costs for land, equipment, irrigation, greenhouses, etc, etc. make it impossible unless you can start out debt free (as we did). All I can tell them is to meet a woman/man who will inherit their family farm and make that relationship work. They will never have the cash to do it otherwise. They always look at me like I am crazy, then I see the wheels turning and them doing the math, by the end of the season they usually opt for grad school.
I don't know. A college loan or a farm loan? At least the FDA loans money at 2.5% to prevent rural property from becoming sub urbanized. They will also cover your payment for 6 mos. if you have an income problem.
I haven't yet either crud, and I'm in my 50's now.
Trading my own money came the closest, but that's out for now.
Man speaks truth right here.
I decided to never live that way. I've had too many shit jobs which involved working with stupid people.
Funny. Your statement sparked a memory. I coached a couple youth sports teams. It was the most engrossing and rewarding thing I ever did. Too bad it is actually an expense. At least I got to see some of the girls go on to win state and another couple take their team the furthest they had gone in 17 years.
Oh come on...that disk isn't worth much because it is too small. Todays tractors can pull something 3 times wider than that antique!!!
I hope you're being sarcastic about feeling sorry for the guy (I doubt a farmer actually wrote this though, more likely a stooge trying to flush the moron farmers into accepting they are fucking broke and need to sell). Do not feel sorry for these fools.
My family background on both sides is farming. An Uncle just lost his half of the ancestral farm. I don't feel sorry for him. My father tried to help him avoid bankruptcy but he thought he was smarter and didn't listen. I worked on his farm a couple of times (for free) and a year or two before the bank kicked him off, he had an OVERDRAFT of over $2million on marginal farmland. But he just kept borrowing and borrowing. He is a fucking moron.
Noone forced these people to borrow. And even when people (friends and family) advised them not to borrow they just said "who the fuck are you to tell me what to do?" Well dickheads, the reckoning is here, and you only have yourselves to blame.
My grandfather was born on a farm and at the age of 21 he left for good. He said there is nothing in the world more stupid than a farmer. It's tempting to feel sorry for them when you have no inside knowledge. But do some research before you let emotions get in the way of your better judgement.
Lol, an IA boy. I recognize those implement dealer names.
He will be lucky to get 6 g's for that model. M and W should have stuck to lawn mowers
Like his writing.
Anyone who bought a farm and learned to drive a tractor on Jim Rodgers' advice is gonna be pissed.
Yeah, I am still waiting for those 25 year olds on WS driving Lamborghinis to have some down side as well.
Get back to me when it hits $3500.
God help us
WHO!?
funny my friend the farmer from Iowa just bought beach front property in Florida with some of the millions he has been making on the ethanol scam. Farmland going up 20% a year never ends well. Could this be why Beef is doubling every couple years? Thanks Obama and the FED for a massive bubble economy!
BTW NO ONE but the smallest farmer uses these....they drill corn seed into the ground. This guy must be farming like 2 acres.
Exactly. This is no tragedy. Farmers have been coining money until recently. They get subsidies from all of us in bad years and make lots of money when prices are high.
Now prices are low and the high-cost producers and amateurs are getting slaughtered. People have a tendency to romanticize farming, but it's a business like anything else.
Don't tell farmers that it's a business just like everything else... they're second only to servicemen in demand of tribute.
The simple fact is that the type of people typically drawn to the farming lifestyle are not particularly adept at business [and they also think they get a free pass during farming season to ignore the rest of the world]. 95% of businesses fail within the first few years... this is because they have no business starting a business. As farming becomes more complicated, only the smartest/best/most connected survive... just like every other business.
The issue isn't so much the complexity, though, as the cost/risk of farming. When the bubble bursts and land prices drop to shit, you'll see the quintessential barrier to entry be demolished and mom and pop farmers magically have a chance. They'll buy equipment off the overleveraged dipshit outfits and land from the dipshits without bib overalls. Ebb and flow. Many of the biggest landlords around here purchased their property at tax sale from the last land bust.... round and round we go.
For those people who worry about the average age of farmers, don't... automation will fill the void.
Yes Macho automation will be filling a lot of voids. The voids left by formerly independent free people who get busted out of their livlihoods by the banksters who play with commodity paper all day long. Drive them all into govt subsidies in order to survive then point out they are now simply welfare queens. Most will ignore the cause, focus on the effects. It is all working as planned.
Step right up and get your W2 job and forget all of those lofty, ancient notions of being your own boss!
I agree with the meek Mom & Pop folks inheriting the farms after the drugstore cowboy business men get their asses handed to them by the banksters. At least that is what I hope.
My family busted out and had to sell back in the days of 21% interest. I witnessed first hand the lawyers, banksters, fertilizer cos working together to stick it to the poor dumbasses like us who liked working more than learning how to hedge loans and understand commodity paper. Too stuborn/proud to fill out govt subsidy paperwork.
Back in the 70's and 80's some of the biggest crooks were equipment dealers who sold the same combine 5 times on paper. Early rehypothocation. The difference between now and today? Back then the guys that got caught went to jail. Today they run things and compete to see who can rip off in the most brazen manner.
If those 70's era thieves payed me back what they still owe me, I could retire. I still have not learned; I'd be looking to buy a farm.
BTW, some crooked equipment dealers went to jail but the poor saps who financed a 5x rehypothocated, i.e. non-existent combine or tractor still had to pay the notes! Well almost all of them, it depended on who floated the note or how well they lawyered up. Some guys, like the one in the court case linked, were getting into bed with the devil and knew it and went along out of ignorance or greed so they were not always blameless for their circumstance. Some guys got out of being ripped off because they chanced upon what is rare today - an honest court. Below is what passes for an 80's farmer "happy" ending but most others were honest guys who got suckered and couldn't afford court, ending in sorrow and bankruptcy. Busted out and looking for a W2.
Just imageine if the below reference involved John Corzine in place of ol' wicked Eddie Blackmon.
http://openjurist.org/803/f2d/408/john-deere-company-v-fl-broomfield
<snip>
I. Background
2In March 1983, Blackmon approached Broomfield, a farmer, about an arrangement whereby Broomfield could obtain a tractor. Blackmon allegedly told Broomfield that if Broomfield would sign a note for the tractor, Broomfield could use the tractor without cost, and Blackmon would make the payments on the note. In connection with their agreement, Broomfield signed a loan contract and promissory note to Deere. The note was for the purchase of a new tractor, and reflected a downpayment of $18,000 and a principal balance due of $20,000. No downpayment was actually made. Broomfield admitted at trial that he signed the note although he knew that the transaction was not a "proper deal." Broomfield understood that the note would be sent to Deere, and if accepted, Deere would pay $20,000 to Blackmon. Further, Broomfield understood that the note obligated him to pay Deere on the note.
3Blackmon never delivered the tractor to Broomfield. Further, Blackmon made no payments on the note, and went into receivership two months after the note was signed. At some point Broomfield had received a letter from Blackmon which stated that Blackmon was in possession of the tractor and that Blackmon was responsible for paying the note. A Deere representative, investigating Blackmon's activities, went to Broomfield's farm and discovered that Broomfield did not have the tractor. Broomfield gave the Deere representative the letter from Blackmon. Deere subsequently brought suit against Broomfield for default, two months before the first payment was due on the contract, because Deere deemed that its security was unsafe.
Around our parts, they get the "privilege" of drilling deep wells for irrigation. My buddy , in the generator rental business always fucks with them. He says to them " I wish I could get free fuel " . They say "whaaaa?" Water. Water and sunlight are your fuel, and you get both, more or less for free. Does not the water in the ground belong to all of us?
I'm conflicted about farmers. On one hand, I like to eat. A lot. I like a lot, and I like it a lot, ha!
But the get obscene subsidies, are drive the latest ,biggest trucks, and have some mighty fine equipment. Hard to feel sorry.
Farming is following in the foot steps of business; more and more corporate edifices and fewer and fewer small/locally owned.
the ethanol scam
Ethanol is basically energy negative at best. Big scam. More energy input that energy output. Farm district congressmen pushed the subsidy laws and Americans got royally fucked! Though some farmers did indeed get bloody rich on this scam.
Imagine a LAW saying a % of ethanol MUST be in your gas. What the Fuck is That? Crony capitalism!
Ethanol's a bitch with oil at 48.
Didn't realize Horseless H. was in such dire straits?
I am doing just fine, but thanks for thinking about me. I didn't tear up the pastures, rip out the fencelines, or convince mrs_horseman to plant corn in our front yard.
you've been quieter lately... working hard, I hope!
you shouldn't have ripped out the hedges though - protects against wind erosion etc.
Reminds me of clearing tree lines from choke cherry... gets old after awhile.
That's why psychopathic elites distort markets......to make you poor and take your stuff
Oil Price Crash Brings Big Profits For Swiss Banks, Investment Corps
worse price drop since 1986(c)
YGTBFKM...5 years of steady Federal subsidies followed by another 5 years of record high prices? I'm crying no tears for the "beleaguered" American farmer.
The subsidies are desgined to support Cargill corporate farming. Cargill is the equivalent to primary dealers for agriculture. Monsanto and Syngenta are right up there too. All hogs on the trough of corporate welfare. The money stays with the banksters who are majority shareholders. Everybody else is just peons for their entertainment. Heads should have rolled long ago.
idiot
Hey Zio, wtf would you know about farming anyway? I think everyone around ZH except maybe your buddies in those hasbara cubicles right next to yours, thinks you're the idiot.
Wow, so you are retarded...no more response required...
*tiptoes away...
They've been at it a long, long time. Here's an excellent, if a bit dated, book on them and a facisnating read on the grain business.
http://www.amazon.com/Merchants-Grain-Profits-Companies-Center/dp/0595142109
Farmer plants grass puts the land in CRP he gets paid. If he keeps it in grass the government will pay for a new fence.
He checks the flow of the water well, GOV. pays for that. He needs a new more efficient irrigation system, GOV pays for that.
Farmer puts a effort into soil errosion protection the GOV pays for that. One acre of ag land is taxed at .30 cents but is worth 3000.
Everyone in the real world is taxed to pay for these farm welfare programs....... The wheat growers association, the cattlemens association are all there to make sure the money flows and the tax payer is kept in the dark about how much money is flowing to the poor farmer...
We've got several sections of family farm leased out and the leasing farmer was bitching about this because, apparently the music was supposed to never stop.
Corn? What's that good for, nothin but peasant food...certainly not much use for central banksters to manipulate.
Surely Janet Yellen can print some more grains and vegetables to backstop the farmers.... what could anyone be worried about?
It may only be good for us peasants, but I make some mean posole. Anybody who thinks that "decorative" indian corn ain't fit for eating is really missing out.
That crap will kill ya, only fit for whiskey.
peasants AND pheasants
Y'all is missin the point. Gov't mandated ethanol in gasoline. As Winston above says, corn is excellent for making alcohol. Speculators went nuts on the futures markets driving the price into the statosphere. Every farmer saw corn prices flying and planted as much as they could (including our hapless writer of that ad). Since corn is used in animal feed as well, its substitutes also climbed in price. The result was corn piled high at every load-out - a glut - and then we started driving a bit less. Again, speculators enter to grab the margins by shorting commodities and down goes the price of corn. In mid 2012 corn was selling at about $8 per bushel. Right now its closer to $3.50. This is very much like an emerging market boom and bust. The lesson our farmer is learning is to not make long-term financial decisions based on the current price of what you produce when that price is a speculative bubble. Let that also be a lesson to you blind pigs who are currently long on the NYSE. Have a nice day.
Yup - and this is exactly how inflation takes place.
Corn Flakes price down? Nope.
Airline fares down? Nope.
Taxi Fares down? Nope
And none of them will come down.
Corn prices have been cut >50%, as well as oil, but evidently demand for all of the above has doubled, keeping prices the same.
The farmers will have the last laugh when the food riots start.
Not if they cannot get diesel to run their equipment.
When the zombies figure out it's all GMO corn and soybeans in the bins not fit for human consumption, and livestock goes missing, somehow I doubt that very much.
>and livestock goes missing...
Because even cows need a horror movie...
Isolation is a 2005 Irish horror film directed and written by Billy O'Brien and produced by Film Four and Lions Gate FilmStudios. The film was released direct to DVD on 26 June 2007.
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I doubt a majority even associate cows with steak and hamburger, and most of those who do wouldn't even know how to field dress one, much less butcher it. I'm not saying that I'm the guy you want to learn how to butcher an animal from, because I'm not a professional by any means or by skill level, but I can do it. A couple of friends were on the White Sands Missile Range for an Oryx hunt a few years ago, and one fellow drew his once in a lifetime tag and whacked an Oryx, so my buddies offered to help. They even let him use their Havalons to field dress it, but he shot it, so he had to be the one to field dress it. He punctured all sorts of shit, broke a blade off in the meat (they're disposable blades that are scalpel sharp, not a good thing to bite into,) then was going to throw the liver out with the gall bladder still attached to it out, and when my buddies pointed out that was the liver and some people like to eat them, he cut the gall bladder off and without thinking, threw it back into the Oryx, getting bile all over the meat. He should have let my buddies at least point out what to do, because Oryx is damned tasty stuff and he needlessly ruined some of the meat. I think that you'd find that his ability to process an animal for food is probably average or even likely above average.
Fucking criminal waste.
Damn... I could do that without fucking it up when I was 11 or 12.
I've always thought that all the people I've met who've said they've tried venison and commented that it was "gamey" had just eaten meat that some bozo didn't know how to field dress or season properly.
The prices in the store made me plant my own feed and raise my own meat. And choose a place to retire I could do just that.
Even the church ladies admire my canning.
They used to tell me I was building a dream
And so I followed the mob
When there was earth to plow or guns to bear
I was always there, right on the job
They used to tell me I was building a dream
With peace and glory ahead
Why should I be standing in line
Just waiting for bread?
Once I built a railroad, I made it run
Made it race against time
Once I built a railroad, now it's done
Brother, can you spare a dime?
Once I built a tower up to the sun
Brick and rivet and lime
Once I built a tower, now it's done
Brother, can you spare a dime?
You had me at alcohol induced
Bullish.
I don't feel bad for the guy. Farming is risky business. Good things don't last - ever. They were absolutely killing it in 2012, socking away bales of cash. Huge windfall. Buddy of mine, 50+, farms in Iowa. Frequents auctions, where he buys used equipment at not much over scrap value. He's never bought a new piece of major equipment in his life. Never driven a new truck. Has a fleet of beat up John Deere combines that no one else wanted, exchanging parts as needed. No AC, cracked windows, duct taped up, old tires, filthy, etc. Fixes his own stuff. Heats with wood. Works like a dog. No vacations. He'll be one of the last farmers to bite it if the crap truly hits the fan.
Really livin' the dream huh? Sounds like a nightmare.
Yeah, not everyones' dream, not my dream, but he's the happiest guy I know. Were I in his shoes, I'd lease all the land out and travel the world for at least a few years.
Should've hedged. Honestly, I don't know why the modern farmer continues to speculate so, so much in such a complex and volatile environment. They do not hedge like they should. This is a fact. Need a new marketing mindset.
Thats some smart talk there! Should have hedged huh? Hedged his production at a loss? Thats the hedging thats available. Much better for the farmers financial health if he can stay as far away from the CBOT as fucking possible. I didnt junk you, rather upvoted you, but do tell me where those crystal balls are that you seem to have?
There is no such thing as a crystal ball, thus the perfect reason to hedge...even at a small loss (which can grow into a larger loss). Farmers are speculators at heart, and this is a good thing, but their risk management mindsets have not modernized quickly enough.
Who really wants to be naked long phys grain all of the time in a world with fantastic geopolitical, weather, macro, micro, social, etc., volatilities? Risk mgmt isn't fun, and it is not a profit center in most cases (aside from what producer wants to believe), but it is necessary for survival. Cargill, ADM, Dreyfus, Bunge, etc., are all survivors bc of their risk management. Live to fight the land again another day.
Yes, you have a point there about being naked long while holding grain, but the truth in the matter is that once you hedge a loss there's no way in hell to participate in a better price without severe risk. Whereas grain in the bin simply waits for a profitable market price (or the bankers call). Much better odds of survival I think.
Farmers really cannot hedge past one crop year. Hedging requires cash margin and also a crop to deliver. Crop insurance reduces the delivery risk and some of the need for the one year hedge.
He bought a 'used disk ripper at retail dealer prices',
WHY?
....the neighbors had just bought a new one, and I figured I needed to get one too....
Fail.Fail.Fail.
For the small local farmer they have been run out of business by the large corporation contracts. As I process all my own fruits and vegetables, I have worked out a nice deal with a local farmer to buy all that isn't sold at market at a reasonable price in bulk. As for cranberries I have only found one mom and pop business that sells to the public and ships in bulk. Ocean Spray has pretty much taken all cranberry farms by contract.
What about Mariani sweetened dried cranberries? I'm eating some now.
They are based in CA and they apparently have a contract with a farmer in WI as the cranberries are from WI. As I process the cranberries myself I have only found one farmer over the years that I can buy directly from that will also ship. I do have a call into them to see if they would consider selling raw cranberries in bulk in the fall. But since they process all their various fruits I doubt it will be considered.
I'd like to thank you personally for using "vegetables"; I'd like to claw my eyes out every time I see "veggies" written by someone over the age of 4.
Elon Musk makes an electric one for $300000.
There's good farmers, and bad farmers. The bad farmers took and relied on subsidies, thinking that the expensive leased land they were farming would payoff for ever.
The good farmers like LoP, own their land and have learned to diversify, ensuring that they don't need .gov handouts to pay their landlords, and other nefarious Jackals.
How about we run the disk ripper over the backs of the global elite before they start WW3??? Maybe something will grow.
I'd like to run that ripper over Bernanke the fucking cocksucker
this is sad. people like this used to what america was all about... actually making things, trying to do stuff. im not here to debate corn subsidies but this guy seems like he atleast tried. contrast this with the bloomberg article yesterday on drexler and milken - the junk bond king. i am not opposed to those guys making money. but the hubris in that article was outstanding. they way they spoke about thier 'achievements' was so over the top. its not like you cured cancer ... settle down.
People used to move to Detroit too. For the good schools.
white....
Shades of 1919 maybe. The Fed targeted the midwest banks, in 1919, to hammer farmland prices down, after the WWI bubble.
Nothing like that yet, but The Fed has plenty of time. The hit on Crude might just be the first volley in this war.
The first farm aid concert was 1985.
I hope this means falling prices at the store and not another bail out.
Short grocery stores supply line now?
He did not vote for Obamama, no welfare for him.
Farmers going broke in IA, OH etc AND dustbowls soon in CA. This is worse than the Thirties! What is there to say anymore?
Oh, shit, here I am in California and I just remembered I was born in Oklahoma.
I may be a a reverse Calokie pretty soon...
Farmers are the only businessmen who buy everything they buy, at retail. And sell everything they sell, at wholesale. And somehow manage to survive.
But, but... libertarian gurus like Jim Rogers and others assure us that "Farming is the place to be".
Point is -- do I have to spell it out again? -- that there are NO certainties and no Magical Investments for the average Joe Shmo. And yet, sadly, Libertarians are NO less susceptible to snake oil salesmen and opportunists than anyone else.
Beware of anyone who's pushing The Magical Investment. You'd think that the hammering in PM, shale and now farmland would demonstrate that. And please don't retort with the lame "Manipulation" meme, which is as old as humanity.
After the commie revolution in the US, farming will be the place to be.
United Pitchforks of America, comrade.
You mean after the overthrow of our current commie leaders?
Yes the Pitchforks will be necessary.
Jim Rogers is right. Don't blame him if most Americans are too stupid to pull it off. Many of us are doing it and not in the trouble this article wants you to believe is the "norm"
How does this sound? Everybody tear up parts of their lawns and plant some non-GMO vegetables, or corn, or wheat, or rice, even.
Tell Monsanto, ADM, et. al., to shove their crapola up their collective poop-shoots.
Than, this:
Oh, you live in an apartment? Too bad. You die.
Back to the land, brothers. The land...
No. America loves to copy the grand lawns of the Taj Mahal. Something about their love for Muslum kings.